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SpaceVenture - Space Quest spiritual successor by Two Guys from Andromeda

FeelTheRads

Arcane
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Apr 18, 2008
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13,716
Thanks. I hope revisions means removal. Because last time I checked they said they only said they will make them more responsive.
 

Blackthorne

Infamous Quests
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Yeah, I can't really speak for them, or two it all - but I did find them, personally, to be unresponsive - though I liked the concept. It was an interesting new take in adventure games. I think there may have been too much of it crammed in there, but you know - a lot of making adventure games is trial and error. I enjoy sharing my alpha builds with the team to get their ideas on how things work; it's helped to shape a lot of features and puzzles for QFI.


Bt
 

FeelTheRads

Arcane
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Messages
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Obviously, unresponsiveness was a problem, but I chalked that up to being an alpha demo. What I didn't like is the concept and that can't be fixed. They're just pointless minigames, which don't require any thought from either the creator or the player, and we have plenty of those already infecting new adventure games, or games in general.
 
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Blackthorne

Infamous Quests
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Codex 2014 Divinity: Original Sin 2
I thought moving the boxes to get to the other door was a fun form of interactivity within a room. But it all has to be within reason.


Bt
 

taxalot

I'm a spicy fellow.
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Codex 2013 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
Aside from all the Paul Trowe drama, which actually next to nothing to do with SpaceVenture
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...aceventure-by-the-creators-of-space-que/posts

I have heard rumors that some people from the LSL remake tried to "hijack" the Spaceventure campaign by telling the Two Guys that there was something up at Telltale concerning the Space Quest rights. I am not sure I remember the specifics.

Just rumors. But in the light of recent development, I'm inclined to almost believe them.
 

FrancoTAU

Cipher
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Oct 21, 2005
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Brooklyn, NY
I liked the animation shown. It's honestly better looking overall than I expected when I pledged. Hopefully now that they go their shit together, the game will be finished.
 

suejak

Arbiter
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Space Quest is my most nostalgic Sierra series (possibly, POSSIBLY behind Gobliiins), and I really don't expect much. The sliding puzzles were awful, and it's clear that they're more interested in "success" than in making an old-school adventure game.

Unfortunately, they're the most salient example of this disease.
 

Boleskine

Arcane
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
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Update

Release & Project Status as of June 6th

3cc8f38513b37d2e03bfff48345da5f9_large.JPG

We are aware that there are a lot of questions from you, our backers, regarding when SpaceVenture is going to be released as well as made available for sale. There are many opinions and feelings, varying from the extremely harsh to the quite patient, though ultimately all wanting the same thing; the highest quality SpaceVenture possible. Some want it yesterday, and some have advised us to “take the time you need to make the best game you can." We have worked hard to not abuse this encouragement.

We are very sensitive to the entire range of feelings. We ultimately intend to deliver to you the best game possible. We can hurry and release a gaming experience we aren’t as happy with, something we would be afraid and certain would be a let-down to you, or take the extra time to give you something we will feel good about in both our hearts and guts, a game worthy of your backing and patience.

We have avoided giving an official release date due to many major unexpected challenges we have encountered as we’ve progressed through the development process of the first new game by our new company. Everyone who has ever worked on a first project of any kind, and especially a game in a new environment, knows there are ‘growing pains’, especially with that very first one. We don’t want to delve into a laundry list of details. If you would like a taste of the issues mentioned in the past please feel free to read our October 16th update.

Having said all that, we have decided to give a soft estimated release time period of 9 months to a year from now without going into detail on why things have moved slower than each and everyone of us has wanted. That means if everything goes more smoothly than the first third, and we see absolutely no way it won’t, we expect to be done by March of next year. We will not let the game suffer due to being pushed by a hard deadline. Know that first and foremost, we are shooting for an adventure game the type of which we offered and for which our fans asked, an ‘old-school adventure with new tech and design lessons learned’ game you backed through Kickstarter and PayPal.

We know without any doubt this release estimate will frustrate most of you and infuriate others, but because of our passion for this game and adventures in general, we stand fully behind this decision. As we have said in the past, we have one shot at making the game great. That one shot will determine the future of the company.

Here is a breakdown of where things stand currently:

FULL GAME COMPLETION

  • The story is complete.
  • Most storyboards and a good deal of concept artwork done for the full game are on Mark’s wall.
  • 1/3 of the game is mostly complete with polish. That includes artwork, game play mechanics, music/sfx, and narrative/dialog. (Please note that this has been a our major learning curve, and the achievement of this will definitely speed progress on the rest of the game. SO many lessons learned here!)
ARTWORK/ANIMATIONS

  • We have very polished artwork for 1/3 of the game and some scene artwork completed for the rest of the game. Although Mark is mostly involved in polishing artwork, he is also overseeing a couple of our artists working on scenes for the rest of the game along with animations and cutscenes.
  • Most of the animations needed in the game for Ace and Rooter are completed, something that’s a larger feat than most would think.
  • All non-Ace and Rooter animations are added and working in 1/3 of the game.
AUDIO/MUSIC

  • Almost all sound effects and music have been completed for 1/3 of the game.
  • The music is as complete as it can be at this point.
VOICE RECORDING

  • At this time no voice-over has been recorded for the game. Dialogue is fluid and we intentionally wait until as late as we can to book our talent and studio time. We are planning to go to the studio in three different recording sessions. The first recording session is coming up. We’ll post more details on that hopefully soon, As with the art, for each part of the game we will schedule our talent and studio time as late as is possible because, as we learned years ago, the dialogue also evolves for the better.
PROGRAMMING

  • Of all the items listed in this update, programming is the one that has contributed the most in causing the project to move as slowly as it has. As mentioned in the October update, we had to design almost all the tools needed to make SpaceVenture ourselves since Unity has been in the past especially a ‘one size fits all games’ game engine. The good news there though is that we have been able to make very good progress now that the tools we needed are nearly complete.
  • We have a code base foundation that will be used for the entire game and as well as whatever we do in the future. We’ve essentially built our wheel.
FUTURE KICKSTARTER UPDATES

  • In the past, Chris has tried his best to provide unique updates on the 1st and the 16th of each month. This was a decision made with the best of intentions but in reality is sometimes difficult to execute without becoming annoying to some because, even though there is always some progress, there’s not always something with a high-enough drool-inducement factor worth sharing, and we don’t want to give away too much in the updates. Chris will post updates as achievements warrant, to let you know we have something new and exciting or relatively interesting, or when something’s just too cool to not share. We will do our best to give you a clear view of the status of the project.
In Summary:

There have been many challenges and setbacks that have slowed progress. Yes, there are things we should have anticipated, but also many we couldn't. No matter how many games with which one is involved there will always be hard lessons along the way. These can be humbling. There have been many moments of frustration, even more for us than most of you. We’ve encountered and surmounted many hurdles, but such is the way of game development, as well as life in general. We are (almost all) merely human. With the exception of one team member, we’ve each had family health care issues that have impacted our performance and progress. Nonetheless, we will continue to push forward fueled by your enthusiasm, from those who've backed us from day one to those who've just recently become aware of what we are doing, and by our team's passion for the game and our excitement over what is ahead. Through all of that we absolutely believe we'll be proud of SpaceVenture, and you will enjoy the end result.

Thank you all for your support.

Guys From Andromeda LLC

Scott Murphy, Mark Crowe, and Chris Pope

<Now donning helmets, protective exo-armor, bracing for impact>
 

Pantalones

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Messages
286
This one is really starting to look like an impossible mission :(
$200k in 9 days...

Anyway, I decided to re-watch (and share it here) this really awesome video on the SQ series and the origins and history of adventure games: http://www.youtubeXXX.com/watch?v=VGh7i2mj5tU
(this guy really comes up with amazing videos, a shame he stopped doing them)

Share it around (together with the http://www.tgakick.com link) by email, twitter, facebook, and maybe it will gather more pledgers.



Great video. Been forever since I played SQ 2. I didn't watch Red Dwarf until it came out on dvd a while back but the opener of RD is quite similar. Now I have to wonder if it was inspired by SQ! They always claim their inspiration is Blade Runner and they do steal a few scenes but the concept is much closer to SQ.
 

Blackthorne

Infamous Quests
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I think a lot of the adventure game excitement of 2012 had died down... even I'll say that Quest For Infamy took longer to finish than I would have liked, and I will say if we'd had a larger budget, we could have finished it sooner, I reckon. I just get sad thinking that all that enthusiasm that was had two years ago has waned, and has often been replaced with anger, mistrust or malaise. So far, many of the offerings people were excited about have gotten mixed reviews/reactions. I still feel like Scott and Mark are going to make a good, fun and engaging game - but the time thing really does make the excitement wane. It's an interesting position for me, as a developer AND a huge adventure game fan.

Bt
 

bertram_tung

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I think a lot of the adventure game excitement of 2012 had died down... even I'll say that Quest For Infamy took longer to finish than I would have liked, and I will say if we'd had a larger budget, we could have finished it sooner, I reckon. I just get sad thinking that all that enthusiasm that was had two years ago has waned, and has often been replaced with anger, mistrust or malaise. So far, many of the offerings people were excited about have gotten mixed reviews/reactions. I still feel like Scott and Mark are going to make a good, fun and engaging game - but the time thing really does make the excitement wane. It's an interesting position for me, as a developer AND a huge adventure game fan.

Bt

I knew it would take a while when I pledged $150 dollars. I'm still excited, I just have a way of putting my excitement on the backburner because there's no sense in obsessing over it every day until it comes out. It'll come when it comes, and it will be fun.
 

Infinitron

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Corey Cole posted in the comments of the last update: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...e/posts/862708?cursor=6966018#comment-6966017

In reply to exoScoriae and others: In general, your comments are completely true. Mark and Scott, despite decades of game-making experience, greatly underestimated the time and money it would take to make a new adventure game. Lori and I are in the same situation, although our specifics are slightly different.

So our "Estimated delivery" dates were ridiculously optimistic. That doesn't mean that the projects are ridiculous or that we won't deliver eventually. I know Mark, Scott, and their team are working very hard on their project; as are Lori, I, and our team on Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. With 20:20 hindsight, we could have all done better.

But do not assume that big companies are any more competent at getting games out the door. In 1990, Sierra had an established game engine, which cost millions, and all of the projects used it. As a result, we got games out in a year for under $1 million using those tools. By the late 1990's, they had to rework all of the tools for 24-bit graphics, 3D, and modern computers. The system development cost millions for *each* game, and the games themselves took years and millions of dollars to develop. Quest for Glory V shipped two years late and at triple the original budget. Sierra, with all its experience and expert developers, came nowhere close to accurately predicting either costs or schedule.

King's Quest: Mask of Eternity shipped the same year, far behind schedule and with massive cost overruns. They also had a custom game engine which ran into development problems - There was no communication to develop one engine for multiple games as there was in 1990. Let's also not forget that it was ludicrous to ship two major fantasy titles in the same year. Sierra did it because nobody at the company had any idea when either game would be complete. The following year, Sierra closed their in-house development.

I mention Sierra because I was there, but I could give dozens of examples of major game companies falling completely on their faces, missing deadlines by years, and spending millions of dollars over budget. Wildstar, anyone? Its spend was approaching $100 million when I interviewed their several years ago. Carbine started development on it in 2005, I think for a planned 2008 or 2009 release. Wildstar is getting excellent reviews, so they may have placed the right bet. A mediocre game released five years ago would have just wasted all the money put into it.

Then there was the game company - started by major industry figures whose names you would all recognize - that asked Lori and me to propose a game design. We spent weeks at it, on spec, and presented what we still think is a great game idea. They decided they didn't need outside game designers, and instead had the executives and art directors do the design. That game cost millions and sold fewer than 1,000 copies in its first six months. It's beautiful; the game play is... let's just say "bad". Word of mouth got out quickly and the game failed.

Ref major films, William Goldman famously said, "Nobody knows anything." That is even more true in the game industry.

So yeah, if we'd been smart, we probably would have written some adventure game books rather than a computer game. We believed people when they told us how easy it was to develop a game under Unity. We thought Unity would replace most of that multi-million dollar game system development at Sierra. Instead, we found out that it is just a subset of what is needed for a full graphic adventure.

Making games is hard. Making great games is completely unpredictable. Planning a schedule for a large game has so many unknowns that nobody gets it right consistently. Finding great animators and programmers who will work for a fraction of their industry-standard paycheck is very hard. We are all doing the best we can.

How did Jane Jensen do it? She signed a publisher contract to supplement the Kickstarter income. And was still about a year late. How are Lori and I making a game long past the original deadline? We have key team members who are deferring pay while they support themselves with day jobs. We are borrowing money to keep food on the table and to pay other team members and project expenses. We hope we can sell enough copies of the game to pay for all that and hopefully reward our loyal team. But it's impossible to predict.

I'm personally a bit relieved that SpaceVenture is having such a hard road to release. It and Hero-U have had many of the same problems with engine, animation, and team. All it shows me is that we have not taken on easy or predictable tasks. Large-scale creative development is difficult, expensive, time-consuming, and unpredictable. But I trust Mark, Scott, and Chris; they will finish the game and it will be good. It will also have cost far less to develop than any current AAA game from a major studio. I can say this because I know it's true of Hero-U as well.

But we are sorry that we listed an Estimated delivery date that we had no chance of making. In hindsight, even if we had gone with our very simple original plan (essentially an animated board game with a lot of text), we would have missed the deadline by six months. Instead we are making a AA game and missing by two years. It's the best we can do, and few others manage to do better.
 

FeelTheRads

Arcane
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Apr 18, 2008
Messages
13,716
I think this one is bound to be the best one from ex-Sierra people.
Well, in terms of production value at least.

Still hope Hero-U is gonna turn out alright too because I like the Coles.
 

Boleskine

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Sep 12, 2013
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I've had my share of concerns about this project, as the updates had nearly all been very superficial up until the post from earlier this month.

I love Mark and Scott, and I have confidence they are making a good game. I don't expect it to be great or have a higher level of challenge than other comparable kickstarter adventures, and the alpha demo indicated they were tailoring the design to mobile devices (swiping, sliding, etc.), but as long as it's funny and charming that might overcome the other issues.
 

Pyke

The Brotherhood
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South Africa
My brother is a unity dev, and I can honestly say that the things that that engine can pull off are astounding....but I would never use it for an Adventure Game when there are other - better - alternatives out there.It really is using a shotgun to kill a fly.

The biggest issue is the ability to feature creep your entire game. Suddenly you have a physics engine...and can create physics puzzles. You can have multiple randomly generated 3D characters...so your game has huge scenes. You didnt NEED that physics puzzle that uses dynamically generated water, or that huge bar scene where you can walk around on multiple levels and see 50 unique characters interacting...but you want it because you can have it.
That physics puzzle takes 10 times longer to implement and test. All of those characters in that bar not only need models, but some dialogue...perhaps some extra voice acting..
You can have dynamic lighting through using Normals and ZDepth passes...so your background outputs take longer because you cant 'simply' paint in details - they need to have the proper maps applied to them or they wont work with the systems.

Basically instead of working within your limitations - they are taken away...and the game design exponentially gets larger and more complex.

In a big team on a AAA game, shattering those limitations is part and parcel of the design process. You have the resources to create new and different control schemes, lighting systems, weather effects...you have a plethora of programmers that NEED to break those barriers down or you are bleeding time and money. Those big AAA games are like sharks...they cant stop moving forward or they die.
Smaller productions cannot absorb the costs of all of those extra features..features that UNITY makes it 'easy' to add...but even in adding them you still have to design for them, and test for them - and those are the time sinks that can so easily get out of hand.
 

Boleskine

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4,045
Interview with the Two Guys at IGN.

The phenomenon that is Kickstarter has been a lot of things to a lot of people. For some gamers it has been a chance to provide funding for new indie projects that wouldn’t seemingly exist otherwise, and for others it has been a chance for them to reconnect with their past. With quite a few new games coming from veteran developers born out of crowd sourcing, this has, if nothing else, laid bare an insatiable appetite for the games of yesteryear.
Amongst the many early titles vying for crowd funding in 2012 came a new game from the creators of the Sierra classic, Space Quest. Simply called SpaceVenture, the game is very much a spiritual successor to the classic adventures of Roger Wilco, but this time with players in control of an intergalactic plumber of sorts, Ace Hardway, instead of a janitor.

I caught up with the Two Guys from Andromeda (Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe) to chat about the new project, its origins, learning from past mistakes and intergalactic poultry icons.


One guy from Andromeda - Mark Crowe in his office.

IGN: The last Space Quest game was quite a long time ago, and since then you guys separated and went down different paths, perhaps even on entirely different planets. What made you decide to get back together to make another scifi adventure game?

Scott Murphy: Sierra had gone through some changes. Adventure games went away in the late ‘90s and so did I. They closed the Oakhurst operation, the birthplace of Sierra as a company in 1999, the year after I left. I went to parts north, then east and then west again, and then south. I never imagined I’d ever be involved with computer games again. The final years at Sierra had left an extremely bitter taste.

I’d stayed out of the industry. I’d lost interest. I only paid mind to that era in the form of answering fan emails for a number of years, and then more recently by connecting with them through social media. That made the world feel a lot smaller and allowed the chance for me to be in touch with fans around the world who sought me out. It was a pleasure after so many years to be in touch with all those cool people, since time had mellowed the burnout. I heard stories of people who were kids back then playing the games with their kids now, or how they’d bonded with family members playing these games.

These stories were extremely touching. It made me realize and be grateful that people cared so much about what we had done, how lucky and fortunate we were. Still, I’d only done just a couple of interviews over the years. One of those was with the persistent and patient Chris Pope who offered to come to where I was living to do a very rare face-to-face interview in the summer of 2011. A friendship grew out of that since I got to know him.

Then, over a decade after Sierra’s demise and twenty years since we’d last been in contact, Mark tracked me down and emailed me about two months into 2012. We soon got on the phone and talked about the old days. In less than 15 minutes it was like no time had passed and we were back in stride.



The Two Guys in Space Quest III.


Mark Crowe: I’ve been in the game development business since the days at Sierra, living and working In Eugene Oregon (which does seem like an “entirely different planet” sometimes). I was Studio Design Director at Pipeworks, a console game developer, for 12 years before leaving to form the Guys from Andromeda with Scott and Chris [Pope]. The impetus for that, of course, was the success of Double Fine’s Kickstarter campaign. It proved there was still a large interest and a growing nostalgia for classic style adventure games. So I dug up Scott’s email and contacted him. It was great to be reconnecting after all those years and we both just really enjoyed recounting our years at Sierra.

The planets just seemed in alignment, you could say. The potential of fan funding and online publishing allowed us to get around the traditional publisher hurdles. There’s also the fact that there were fan-made Space Quest games that had recently come out. Everything was pointing to this being the time to try and make it happen. Scott introduced me to Chris who impressed me right way as being super sharp and an all-around swell guy (and a little bit of a crazed/dedicated Sierra fan). With his social media and web development expertise, talent connections, and a driven dedication he was instrumental in making a new Two Guys adventure game a reality.



Where it all began.


IGN: As you mention, SpaceVenture was one of the early Kickstarter successes that kind of spoke to this general sense amongst gamers that even though the adventure genre is seen as this thing tied to the ‘80s and ‘90s, the demand is still there for new games. What drew you to Kickstarter and crowdsourcing to raise the funds to make SpaceVenture?



Mark, Scott and Chris at SDCC.

Scott Murphy: Mark and I both had coincidentally just started hearing about Kickstarter projects and this new model for financing things. There were so many different kinds of projects but most interestingly to us of course were a couple of adventure games attempting to give crown funding a try. No established companies were interested in adventure games, and if they were, they were doing a damn good job of hiding it. Mark floated the idea of seeing what interest there was in what we used to do and giving Kickstarter a look as the way to go. We mulled it over and got more serious about it.

IGN: It seems like adventure games kind of disappeared off the map from virtually every known publisher the big ones anyway. Did you ever consider going down this route before, was there ever any attempt to actually try and wrangle the rights to make another Space Quest? Or even something like SpaceVenture elsewhere?

Scott Murphy: We checked around and actually did talk to someone at Activision about Space Quest who then, and I believe now, still own all of the old Sierra IPs (intellectual properties). This actually occurred extremely close to the start of our Kickstarter campaign. They said they had potential plans for all the old franchises but said they’d call us back and let us know what their thoughts were about us doing something with Space Quest after a group of executives had convened. We never heard back from them. We had a feeling that would be the case though based on the attitude of the guy we spoke with, so Mark and I thought we’d go another way based on what fans were asking us for since we couldn’t wait on Activision. For the record, we still haven’t heard back from them.

In 2012 there still were no established companies interested in adventure gaming that we knew of so we started our own endeavour, Guys From Andromeda LLC, and began to move forward to see what could happen from there.



They've definitely got the 'hero pose' down.

IGN: What were those first few weeks like back in the, err, space saddle? You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘like riding a bike’, so with that in mind, was it just as easy (or hard) as balancing on a metal framework connected to spinning wheels and rotating chains that you haven’t tried in over a decade?

Scott Murphy: The ‘riding a bike’ analogy is apt. One thing Mark and I learned very quickly after having not talked for so many years was that we still had that connection. It also occurred to me that when we were partners at Sierra we never had a significant disagreement in all that time, which is incredibly rare and fortunate in any partnership. It had never occurred to us while at Sierra since we were always so busy working on game after game and had come to see it as the norm. But the big difference now is that we aren’t working in an office in the same location. We’ve been working in the new ‘virtual office’.

Mark Crowe: Yeah I suppose you could say working together again was as easy as riding a skimmer bike across a Keronian desert (cue: crickets). The ‘virtual office’ has been a mixed bag for us though. We work just a monitor away from each other (provided our connections don’t crap out and our working hours overlap). Speaking for myself, it’s great working from home and being able to shutoff the world when I need to focus. But, there’s certainly something to be said for being cooped up together in an office working consistently 8 to 10 hours a day with an employer checkingin daily and asking “is it done yet?”

Scott Murphy: The virtual office has been a mixed bag for me personally too. In that room together back in the day there were often long hours of silence, but it was never uncomfortable to me other than the pressure felt from not being productive (and the abovementioned annoying employer checkin). But at some point one of us would spout something out of the blue, really stupid or not, and we’d go off and run with it. We came up with some of our best stuff from initially incredibly stupid ideas. I don't think that’s uncommon based on some writers I’ve talked to. People have no idea how strange and pressurefilled the creative process can be, but mostly strange. We were learning a lot of lessons as we went along since there was no ‘adventure design school’, at least back then. One good thing is we’ve learned a lot about our past mistakes. SpaceVenture is benefitting from that.

IGN: SpaceVenture stars Ace Hardaway, an intergalactic plumber or sorts, which in a way is a similar blue collar profession to that of famed janitor Roger Wilco. What is it about these professions that draws you to create these characters?

Scott Murphy: Since Space Quest wasn’t an option, and we knew that people wanted something like it, SpaceVenture became the next best thing. Space Quest had grown from a desire to break the Sierra mould and have a character that was anything but a knight or prince or anything of that sort. Roger Wilco was definitely not in that mould. We wanted something that was more like an ‘everyman’ type. That lends itself to humour, is relatable, and that’s what a lot of people like. Someday we’d really like to do something different but a game like SpaceVenture and a character like Ace Hardway are what our supporters told us they wanted first.



So shiny!

IGN: Ace has his own sidekick in the form of a robotic dog called Rooter, a ‘K9 robomutt’. How will this new dynamic play in terms of the story, adventure, and puzzle solving?

Mark Crowe: Being pet lovers, we wanted to tap into that bond that people feel with their pets to boost the emotional investment from players. But Rooter is not merely a cute little companion thrown in for emotional effect. Rooter functions as Ace’s ‘walking toolbox’ assistant, that you can take control of to utilize Rooter’s unique set of skills and abilities. Rooter’s size becomes an advantage in overcoming certain obstacles or accessing places where Ace can’t go. Early in our story, Rooter’s personality undergoes an interesting metamorphosis that we think everyone will get a kick out of. We all love Rooter.



A lead character who's a plumber?! That'll never work.

Scott Murphy: Mark came up with Rooter and I fell in love with the little guy instantly. Like Mark said, people have strong bonds with their pets. I’m one of those people and it really grabbed me. I love Rooter. I have acquaintances on Facebook who are also fans of Space Quest. They’re raising two very young nieces due to some extremely difficult family circumstances. When Mark posted more finished art on the web I got a private message from that individual and was told about how they’d shown their nieces Mark’s artwork and how excited they were, how positively they’d reacted, touching the screen where Rooter was. It got to me just that much more.

I really love the dynamic between Ace and Rooter, basically a boy and his mechanical, thruster powered dog. I know this is a long answer to a short question but I believe Rooter was a master touch by Mark, so much so that I wish he’d been my idea!

IGN: Can players expect the same sort of ‘entire planet/galaxy at stake’ type of overall arc for the story? Or will it be more lowkey?

Scott: There is a villainous entity that Ace stumbles across and if left unchecked can have far-reaching implications. There’s a difference from what we’ve done in the past and some surprises, but we can't tell you about that now.

Mark: Hey, what kind of Two Guys sci-fi parody space adventure would this be if the fate of an entire galaxy didn’t hang in the balance?

Scott: Yeah, what Mark said.

IGN: How long into development was it when you came up with spacefaring galactic poultry icon Cluck Y’Egger?


Cluck: poultry icon.

Mark Crowe: Cluck was one of several early ideas we kicked around for a lead character to base a game around. He’s actually an idea that had been rolling around for quite a while. Sort of a ’Buck Rogers’ type character set in a retro/steampunk universe. I guess we’ve had some past experience with space poultry as well.

But Ace Hardway emerged to be the stronger concept all around, being that he’s human which makes him more relatable. And he’s got that ordinary guy in extraordinary circumstances thing going for him. Stick to what you know, right? Not that there’s anything wrong with being an anthropomorphic chicken. Cluck was just such a great character that we had to figure out a way to bring him into Ace’s story. And we did!

IGN: One of the more infamous aspects of Sierra adventures which Space Quest played mostly for laughs were the many ways in which Roger Wilco could die, forcing players to restart the entire game or load an earlier save. In the days where there’s an expectation that you can’t get stuck or die easily how does the game balance the more modern design elements with a feature like this?

Scott: The majority of Space Quest fans liked the more entertaining deaths. We enjoyed making them too. Although we might have made one or two too many. Games were too serious when we made the first Space Quest. When it came to the deaths though, no one liked being penalised because they hadn’t recently saved, nor did they like being trapped because of something they needed from earlier in the game and not being able to get it and having to go way back and play all the way through again because of poor design. We learned the lessons we needed to, sadly the hard way. We’re very aware of how we can’t torture the player now like we did back then, which was mostly out of ignorance. We’re confident people will be much happier with how we handle these things now.


Lesson learned.

IGN: Space Quest used pop culture, parody, and satire for a lot of its humour with references to many classic entities like Star Wars and Planet of the Apes. Can we expect more of the same, and could you provide an example or two (whilst trying not to spoil the joke) of this in SpaceVenture?

Mark: Oh yeah! Sci-fi and fantasy parody is what we live for. It’s really what makes it so fun for us. On SpaceVenture the challenge for us has been to ‘spread the love’ and include references to as many different entities as possible (no matter how obscure) without “going to the well” of any one of them too often. And also in keeping everything in the realm of parody/satire.


Certainly looks green.

Some spoiler free examples. First up Ace will debunk an urban legend surrounding a new Soylent product. Guess what? It’s NOT people. In another example, Ace is flying down the Interstellar Causeway when he gets pulled over by a mercurial lightcycle cop by the name of Officer Quicksilver. Think Terminator 2 meets Cops.

Scott: We do love to parody but we try not to be disrespectful.

IGN: Being away from the genre for a number of years, was there a huge backlog of jokes, puzzles and scenarios that you couldn’t wait to get into the game? Say, for example, a very timely joke about Star Wars: The Phantom Menace?

Mark: You know, it didn’t occur to me until just now but we kind of left the Star Wars prequels alone. We didn’t consciously avoid those films or anything. It’s just that we had plenty of other material to draw from. But now you have us wondering if we should include some prequel riffs. Oh well, maybe we’ll hold that back for the sequel(s).

Scott: That’s a good point. There are indeed a lot of things. Personally, I found it painful to watch the Star Wars prequels, but that’s just me and my personal taste, or lack thereof. But we probably have an obligation to skewer and err, have some fun with the prequels sometime, somewhere.


This Tatoorakus scene looks to be classic old school Star Wars.

IGN: Blending traditional pointandclick elements with arcade sections was also something that Space Quest did more so than any other adventure games, will we see the same blend of styles with SpaceVenture?

Scott: Well, there sure won’t be anything as apparently brutal to some players as the skimmer sequence from the first Space Quest. We’re still feeling the fan pain from that one, but we will have some arcade touches here and there. We’re not going to penalise people who want to play an adventure and not an arcade game. We’ve learned a lot of lessons through the years.

Having said that, we still have to follow our gut and remember who and what made it possible for us to do what we do, and to be mindful of what players like and expect from us. We feel pretty good about our approach to them. We know we can’t please everyone but we can try damn hard. The people who trusted us through their backing do have expectations and that’s something we have to seriously consider along with backers who didn’t grow up with adventure games, but decided to back us anyway. We’re being careful to balance what some of the people want and what some of them would like to see less of. We appreciate each and every one of them and that makes it a tough wire to walk.


Into the belly of the beast, so to speak.

IGN: Technology has seemed to have reached a point where it’s possible now to make a game that looks and feels like a cartoon or animation. Are there any challenges working with a 3D engine as opposed to the more traditional 2D hand drawn style?

Mark: Our goal was to make a 2.5D adventure game, one that used traditional 2D background art while taking advantage of some of the more modern 3D game tech, such as real-time 3D characters and particle effects. One of the biggest hurdles initially was figuring out how to marry 2D and 3D. Which doesn’t sound like it should be too difficult right? Well, that’s what we thought going into it. But many challenges quickly arose like how to make 2D characters mesh convincingly with pre-rendered 2D backgrounds, how to match the perspective, lighting, and interaction with objects. How to ‘cut up’ the 2D art to create multiple planes within a 3D space for the 3D character to interactive with. So there was a bit of R&D that had to take place early on to establish a process.


One of the best looking closets ever.

There were many other unanticipated hurdles on the coding side for making the 2D and 3D play nice. One might ask why we chose to go this 2.5D route. There’s an old B. Kliban cartoon that Scott turned me onto back at Sierra that sums it up for me.



The cartoon in question.

IGN: Being a crowd-sourced project and working within a small team seems to be the opposite of any big budget title being developed today but back in the Sierra days, unless they forgot to credit a whole bunch of people, the team sizes were also comparatively small. What would you say would be the key difference between say a small team then and a small team now?

Scott: Team sizes were dictated by a couple of things back then, but mainly the engine. As we went from AGI to SCI and SCI32 (in the early ‘90s) we needed larger teams because they were much more powerful. When the game development system became more powerful, the programming difficulty factor increased as well. The same was true with the new hand painted art. The title of the game in question also mattered. One thing to keep in mind is that Sierra had several people dedicated to the game development system alone which was extremely helpful. It’s something I think all designers at Sierra took for granted. We were fortunate to have some very talented game systems people. And the budgets were a lot bigger then compared to now with only an exception or two, and that was a long time ago. Once you factor in inflation the difference is much greater.

It’s good to have game engines available today like Unity for example, which to some degree allows for a smaller team to match the budget, but Unity is kind of a ‘one size fits all’ engine for a variety of game types. We’re having to adapt to that while at the same time building some of our own tools and modules. Our resources take a hit because of that. On the upside though, we will have those available to us which will help with future projects.


A video game plumber actually doing his job?

IGN: Final question and probably the most important. Will the game feature a Monolith Burger? And if not, could you recommend another place to eat?

Scott: Hah! Funny you should ask. We will definitely have your dining needs covered.

Mark: Yep! Ace will be heading to the border for his favourite fast food in SpaceVenture. Something a bit more gastronomically intense than just burgers.


"One SpaceVenture please."

Thanks to Scott Murphy, Mark Crowe and Chris Pope for their time. Space Quest fans should check out our look back at the first two games, and our look back at SQIII and IV, and check in on the official Two Guys From Andromeda site.
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jfrisby

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Update #99 - Oct 2 2014

Hey everyone! It's time to get caught up on some of the goings-on within the SpaceVenture project! We've had a pretty eventful last couple of months as we have worked out the majority of the bugs we were having with the first third of the game along with moving into newer territory with the rest of the game.

PILOTING ACE HARDWAY'S SHIP
Probably one of the most exciting things I get to share with you all during this update is the fact that we've made some big leaps forward in terms of how the navigation of Ace's ship works. Whether you're a fan of taking matters into your own hands, or your less inclined to anything that remotely resembles an arcade sequence in an adventure game, we're gonna have you taken care of.

Last time you saw this garage, it was empty, but not anymore!







Chris Pope said:
Let me also say that all of these videos are still considered early testing of controlling Ace's ship. Things can and probably will change. Let me reiterate to you out there that will be concerned about arcade type sequences in SpaceVenture, there is nothing for you to worry about. We are working on a great balance for the game.

As for the release of the game goes, things are still on track for 2015! I'll give more info on that as I have it in a future update.
 

Blaine

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Basically instead of working within your limitations - they are taken away...and the game design exponentially gets larger and more complex.

I'm really tickled to be reading this coming from someone who's developing one of the Codex's most-anticipated adventure games. The removal of technical (and other) limitations has been closely linked to decline. Case in point: the Star Wars prequels, which were what first caused me to become aware of this phenomenon. With near-unlimited funding, much more advanced special effects technology, and complete creative control over the prequels (whereas before he shared power with and was accountable to other filmmakers and the studio), Lucas produced a big pile of expensive garbage. I actually feel really sorry for the man. When he sold the rights to Star Wars, I knew it must have hit home for him on some level that he'd fallen from grace and disappointed pretty much everyone above the age of ten.

Being forced to work within substantial limitations seems to catalyze creativity for filmmakers and game developers. Once they "make it" and get to be middle-aged egomaniacs, there's a much, much higher probability of them producing garbage rather than recapturing the old lightning in a new bottle.

Richard Garriott... Peter Molyneux... Tim Schafer, are all garbagemen now.
 

Pyke

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I wrote this back in 2008 on the CGTalk forums (back when I wanted to do films instead of games)

Do large budgets ruin movies?
As budgets for franchise movies increase, the quality of the movie decreases. This effect is especially evident in the 'big' trilogys of the past few years, such as Pirates, The Matrix, or Spiderman. The initial movies in all three of these instalations has been groundbreaking, but as the stories have continued, and the budgets increased, the movies just went downhill (Spiderman 2 is a slight exception...although personally I preferred the first movie).

I think its a case of directors and screen writers not feeling the need to be clever with their scripts. Instead of having a clever plot point to get from A to B, its easier to have a 2 million dollar effect sequence.
Imagine if the first Matrix has a budget of $150 000 000...instead of the few signature sequences that made the movie as incredible as it was (Perhaps 4 bullet time shots...those amazing hovership sequences....that feeling of seeing 4 squidies hunting the ship, that INCREDIBLE helicopter crash), we would have been bombarded with 400 squidies, a full CG chase sequence of the ship, and 40 bullet time shots that would in no way have had a 10'th of the impact as the first time you saw Neo dodge a bullet.
Now I think that the brothers has the basic plot idea of all 3 movies when they made the first, but honestly believe that the movies would have been MUCH tighter with half the budget.

Pirates' first script was amazing. Funny, clever, witty, and a perfect 'star vehicle' for Johnny Depp. When they needed to get a ship, the had a plan, and hijacked one of the royal navies, with perhaps one of the most recognisable camera dollys I have ever seen (when Jack turns at the camera, and smiles..pistol slung over his shoulder)...
In the other movies, when we needed to get somewhere, it became a mishmash of montages and writing who's soul purpose seemed to get to the next 'cool' location.
I can tell you the entire story of POTC - COTBP, but honestly couldn't even try to explain half of what went on in the other movies.

Then you get the other end of the spectrum....movies with tiny budgets, that have either INCREDIBLY smart, funny, tight scripts, or amazing concepts and ideas-because they dont have the budgets to build a new set, or have a 20 minute battle.
I recently saw Juno...incredible movie, and by far one of the best movies I have seen all year. Saw (yes..that one!) gained cult status on a budget of just $1.2 million. Now Saw isnt exactly a Coppola like masterpiece, but as far as horror movies go, it was by far a cut above your average slasher fare, and the script and concept was borne out of the fact that they needed a movie they could shoot in 1 room.
There was a movie called Primer about two guys who develop a time machine in their basement, that uses its small budget to amazing effect. No flashy effects...just excellent dialog, and and extremely clever story.
Hard Candy had some moments in it where my palms were literally sweating...more than I can say for any of the big budget hollywood-fare action, horror, or suspence films of late.

The trend of increased budgets and ruined movies is a worrying one. What is going to happen to Ironman 2 with a bigger budget? Are they going to forego a clever script, and just use effects to fill in the blanks?
I think it goes along the lines of, a bigger budget means more studio involvement, which means the director gets less control. Spiderman 3 is a classic example of this. Venom should NOT have been in that movie-and the movie would have been better without him. But the studio's wanted him, and they were footing the $250 000 000 budget.

Will the trend of having these tent-pole movies with their massive budgets kill the blockbuster, as the studios start to not get the returns equivalent to the budgets?
Should directors start 'demanding' lower budgets to lessen studio involvement?
What are your guys opinions?

I think everything there pretty much applies to games.

Case in point, the 'piloting the ship' aspect of SpaceVenture....is it cool? Yes. Is it necessary for a spiritual successor to Space Quest? I don't think so - especially if they are designing it to be something that CAN be skippable.

I'm also not sure why the current generation of adventure games are so focused on mobile. Mobile development is shit for adventure games. The casual market does NOT want adventure games - and your game will be buried underneath mountains of other 'quick release' games that are more suited to the that market.
I'm not saying don't publish on mobile platforms (Stasis will be on iPad at some point), but creating the game with that being the driving force? I dunno...it just seems like the PC Market is where they should be focused. The market of people who want to sit down for 2 hours after a long day, put on some headphones, and play a cool game.
 

Blaine

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Case in point, the 'piloting the ship' aspect of SpaceVenture....is it cool? Yes. Is it necessary for a spiritual successor to Space Quest? I don't think so - especially if they are designing it to be something that CAN be skippable.

Absolutely, and their budget is REALLY tight. That was my very first thought as well. The moment I laid eyes on the ship-piloting video, I began to worry. They ought to have stuck with clicking buttons on control panels and animated lights/readouts and scene transitions, as was the case in every Space Quest game. Space Quest IV had the Time Pod instead, but the principle's the same.

Space Quest IV was my very first adventure game as a young kid. I'd been playing on the computer since 1986 at age 3-4, but mainly educational games like Carmen Sandiego or Stickybear Math, or else simple things like Space Invaders. Space Quest was probably my very favorite adventure game series overall. As a kid growing up in a small town, all of the obscure jokes and references (almost none of which I understood) written by quirky dweebs from Silicon Valley who'd lived through the 60s and 70s, the crazy sci-fi visuals and designs, the tchotchkes and tabloid-style manuals, everything was exotic and fascinating. You can scarcely leave a more nostalgic imprint on a person's mind.

That said, I haven't been following Space Venture obsessively, and all my hopes and dreams aren't pinned on it. When it's out it's out, and if it's good then it's good, but this bothers me for reasons you clearly know all too well.

I'm also not sure why the current generation of adventure games are so focused on mobile. Mobile development is shit for adventure games. The casual market does NOT want adventure games - and your game will be buried underneath mountains of other 'quick release' games that are more suited to the that market.
I'm not saying don't publish on mobile platforms (Stasis will be on iPad at some point), but creating the game with that being the driving force? I dunno...it just seems like the PC Market is where they should be focused. The market of people who want to sit down for 2 hours after a long day, put on some headphones, and play a cool game.

Yeah, I don't have the time of day for mobile. The last "mobile game" I remember playing was some matching puzzle game on my PalmPilot in the early 2000s, long, long before the mobile game boom even began.
 

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Richard Garriott... Peter Molyneux... Tim Schafer, are all garbagemen now.

It's quite likely that most devs that are shit now were shit in the Golden Era, too, but produced good games out of a lack of design confidence. Garriot's been trying to make bad games all his life, but it wasn't until he realised he didn't need to mimic D&D that things went downhill. Schafer's only good work was on other people's games; Full Throttle and Grim Fandango are very nicely presented, but mediocre adventure games.

I'm prepared to believe that Molyneux has some kind of degenerative mental condition because otherwise I can't understand how he ever even found a job, let alone designed Populous.

The only good-dev-turned-evil that sincerely rends my heart is Spector.
 

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